PIN Verification For Credit Card Transactions Officially Starts Tomorrow, 1 July
Hello, Pin & Pay!
By John Lim — 30 Jun 2017, 12:45 PM
From 1 July 2017, signature verification card payment transaction for cardholders will be abolished to make way for the implementation of the PIN & Pay system
This means that PIN verification will be mandatory for all transactions at point-of-sale (POS) terminals using debit or credit cards and signatures will no longer be accepted.
Cardholders were given a six-month grace period - from January to June 2017 - to familiarise with the new system. The duration also allowed banks to tweak any teething issues that arose from the new payment system.
The migration from signature to the six-digit PIN started in mid-2015 until 31 December last year. It covered all credit, debit, charge, and prepaid cards.
If card users don't switch to a PIN card, the old signature-enabled cards will stop working after 90 days for credit cards and by 1 July 2017 for debit cards
Apart from POS terminals, outdoor payment terminals at petrol stations have also adopted the system
The Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) announced in March that all outdoor payment terminals at petrol stations have been upgraded to use PIN entry when making payments with debit, credit, charge or prepaid cards.
The exercise in Malaysia is part of a worldwide shift to PIN-payments which has been implemented in various countries like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand
It is also a bid to decrease credit/debit fraud cases in the country.
“This is a preventive measure as fraudsters will eye the weakest link – which is the signature-verified market,” said Paul Brisk, founding director of payment systems consultant Cotignac Consultancy Systems.